Brothers rip through short-handed Ludden

If there was any doubt about the fact that the Christian Brothers Academy boys basketball team has seized total control of its ongoing "Holy War" against Bishop Ludden, it got washed away in the first quarter of Sunday's meeting at LeMoyne College.

All the Brothers did was shut out the Gaelic Knights, an astonishing development that became the singular mark of a 48-27 romp that was CBA's eighth consecutive win in this series, dating back to 2005.

Never in the 46-year history of the CBA-Ludden conflict had a team on either side scored as few points as Ludden did on this day, but that was just partially due to the Brothers' stern defense.

The Gaelic Knights were without its star forward, Frank Smith, sent to the sidelines for disciplinary reasons earlier in the week. Without him, Ludden seized a major inside advantage, giving Mike Goodman and his fellow forwards a chance to dominate in the paint.

Of course, CBA already had a lot of motivation, having just come off its close 61-57 loss to its other big rival, Jamesville-DeWitt, two nights earlier. And despite the lack of down time between these big games, the Brothers would be ready.

All through that opening period, Ludden's talented pair of guards, Rick Montgomery and John Rooney, tried to penetrate, but got stuffed, and every shot flew off target, inevitably picked up by the Brothers and moved the other way.

Mike Goodman had eight of his 14 points, half of CBA's total in a 16-0 shutout that only got broken up when Rooney converted a jumper 21 seconds into the second quarter.

Ludden didn't reach double digits on the scoreboard until the third quarter, and only the hard work of Rooney (13 points) and Montgomery (eight points) kept it from being more lopsided.

Meanwhlie, CBA cleared its bench, getting all of its players involved. Greg Thomson, with 11 points, gave Goodman inside help as Troy Bullock earned seven points and Stefan Thompson added six points.

Moving to 7-2 on the season, CBA has visits to Fowler and East Syracuse-Minoa this week before going back to LeMoyne Saturday night to face Fulton in the Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge at 7:45.